Rockabye Merbaby
by Lanceeselhombre
Summary: A short little baby mermaid Lance Au because I'm tired but I wanted to write something for the au because the idea popped into my head. Enjoy some quick and cute fluff between Shiro and his baby mermaid at three am. :)


A short little baby mermaid Lance Au because I'm tired but I wanted to write something for the au because the idea popped into my head. Enjoy some quick and cute fluff between Shiro and his baby mermaid at three am. :)

Disclaimer: I own nothing.

.o.O.o.

Shiro woke up to the sound of a baby crying for probably the third time that night. Well, it was early morning when he woke up the third time. Either way, his body and mind were exhausted and he almost didn't want to get out of bed. But he needed to, the baby needed him.

He rolled out of his bed and onto his feet with a groan. He straightened up and stretched hard and yawned, trying to wake up his body a little so he could focus. When he relaxed he ran his fingers through his undercut and walked out of his bedroom and down the stairs to his backyard, not even bothering to change into something different than his shorts. When he opened his back door the crying became five times louder and five times more urgent.

He sighed a little as he sat down on the edge of his pool and readied himself to get in. He really needed to figure out a better sleeping situation than keeping his new addition in the swimming pool, but it was the only body of water he had big enough to fit him at the moment. He could always work on getting a large fish tank to turn into a weird crib tomorrow.

With one last deep breath Shiro slipped into the water and let himself be submerged up to the shoulders. He gasped at the cold and shuddered involuntarily, but he only gave himself a second to get used to the temperature before he swam over to the shallow end and kneeled on the bottom of the pool- the water up to his collarbone. He squinted through the darkness of the night to see the source of the crying lying at the bottom of the pool below him.

It was the baby mermaid he recently took in. He found him abandoned on the shore of a nearby beach with his mother a few meters away, killed by a hunter. He immediately took the baby back to his place and took care of him- yes, he looked it up to make sure that he was really a he- and planned on taking care of him until he was old enough to be put in an aquarium or another shelter. Organizations that took in abandoned or debilitated mermaids put down the ones that were below the age of five because they were too much work to care for, so if he wanted this little guy to live he had to take care of him himself.

The baby was laying on his belly, his top half resting on the water bottle Shiro had given him to stay warm and his tail laying across the towel he put under him. His blanket lay on the bottom of the pool next to him, kicked off in the mer's fitful struggling.

Shiro leaned down to pick him up and lifted him to his chest by his armpits. "Hey Lance." He cooed, hooking an arm under the thickest part of the baby's blue tail to hold his weight and looping the other around his back to rest on his short, soft brown hair. "It's okay sweetie, I'm here."

Lance squished his cheek into Shiro's shoulder and wailed in his ear. He had the back of the man's shirt gripped tightly in his little hands in his attempt to hold on tightly so he couldn't leave. He always did that when Shiro came to his rescue in the middle of the night. He was clingy, but it was cute.

The man shushed him and clicked his tongue softly. "You're okay." He was just cold for the most part; the water bottle lost its heat, causing the baby to wake up when his temperature started dropping. Shiro looked down at the towel and saw that part of it was stained brown with mermaid pee. So Lance was cold and probably upset from laying on the dirty towel for however long it took for him to get to the pool. Nothing major was wrong.

The baby shivered in Shiro's arms, trying to warm himself up quicker than the human's body heat could. He hiccuped sadly and whimpered in between cries until he was warm again before the sounds began to taper off. Within a few minutes he was quietly lying against his caretaker's chest with watery eyes and a thumb in his mouth to suck on comfortingly.

Shiro smiled at him and walked on his knees- it was weird but it kept the mermaid's gills under the water and it allowed him to walk around with putting the baby down- to the side of the pool and felt around for Lance's binkie. When he found the small piece of plastic he palmed it and gently pulled the baby's thumb from his mouth. Before he could protest he popped the binkie in his mouth and let him suck in that instead.

Lance didn't object to the piece of plastic and contently suckled on it, letting the hand that had been at his mouth fall to rest on Shiro's shoulder. His eyes fluttered closed a second later and he let out a sleepy sigh, causing Shiro's smile to widen considerably. "How are you still tired? You've been sleeping since five yesterday evening." He teased softly, knowing the mermaid didn't understand. That never stopped him from cooing to Lance or talking to him when he wasn't comforting him.

A light and sleepy chirp was Lance's only reply to him. The baby cuddled into Shiro and relaxed against the warmth of his chest as he drifted off to sleep again. He was asleep within a few minutes, his suckling slowing down to a more relaxed and rhythmic pace.

Shiro grabbed Lance's blanket and laid it down on the pool floor so he could gently lay the merbaby on it, belly up. The baby whimpered when the human pulled away and threatened to wake up at the loss of contact, but Shiro was quick to shush him and wrap him up in the blanket. He had to leave him here while he reheated the water bottle and got a clean towel, which sucked, especially when Lance usually cried the whole time. He couldn't be blamed though, he was cold and scared without the man there to hold him in the absence of his mother.

The raven-haired man grabbed the hot water bottle and the dirty towel and put them on the concrete next to the pool so he could climb out of the water. He go to his feet and picked the items up again, trying to ignore the sad whimpers coming from behind him as he walked into the house. He left the water bottle by the sink before he climbed the stairs to his linen closet and threw the dirty towel in the basket. He grabbed a clean towel of the same size and brought it downstairs to put it on the counter as he filled the water bottle with new hot water. Once he had both items he grabbed them and brought them inside again.

Lance was crying again when he got back in the water. "Lance, baby I'm here." Shiro cooed as he put the things down he brought outside and lifted the merbaby to his chest again. He quieted down almost immediately once the man's safe, strong presence was back and went back to resting.

While holding Lance with one arm, Shiro folded the towel lengthwise once before positioning the water bottle over the top half of it. Once he was done with that he gently pulled Lance away from himself and laid him down on the towel with his upper body over the water bottle, making sure he was belly down so he didn't make a mess of himself if he peed before Shiro came back to check on him. It was the best he could think of since he couldn't exactly buy mermaid diapers.

Lance frowned when he was pulled away from Shiro but settled down when he felt the warmth of the water bottle. He nuzzled into it and laid down cooperatively, not struggling when he was laid on his belly again. Shiro covered him with his blanket and softly pet his hair while he waited for him to fall asleep again, trying to offer him enough warmth and comfort to lull him. The mermaid trilled softly at the touch, the sound slowly fading to nothing as the baby fell asleep again.

Shiro yawned tiredly when he finally fell asleep. He hadn't been getting much quality sleep with how many times he had to wake up in the middle of the night to take care of Lance. He was contemplating offering to let his friend Pidge sleepover for the night so she could help him, but he felt guilty passing the responsibility onto someone else. Even if she did work at one of the aquariums he was planning on bringing Lance to when he was older.

He knelt in the pool for a little bit after Lance fell asleep to make sure he would be okay. He always stayed a little longer than he needed to in order to admire the baby's surprisingly squishy and soft body. He wasn't budgy, but he had a decent amount of baby fat and the cutest, thick little tail to match. If he could he would bring Lance inside with him and let him cuddle on his bed with him while they slept, but unfortunately mermaids didn't have lungs.

After Shiro yawned another time he knew he should get out and go back to bed. He had work in the morning, he needed to sleep. He stood up and pulled himself out of the water, letting his shorts drop dry for a few seconds before he started walking towards his house. He stopped in the doorway to his kitchen before he turned back to look at the pool one last time, then shut the door when he saw nothing out of the ordinary.

Lance would be fine until morning. Actual morning.


End file.
